from sky to seed

Go on, git!

One kick, one quick flick of a 600 lb calf’s back legs, and our cattle man was rubbing his backside with a sheepish look on his face. But no time for complaints, nope, not in this industry, not on this day. Time to get back to work.

There’s no story here, not really. Just a bunch of cutie-pie calves, our cattle guys, and another ordinary trip up to the Joplin Stockyards. I just happened to have my camera on hand. Lucky.

As an animal lover, I have to admit that it can be hard to watch men working cattle. Life on a farm isn’t for the meek. I guess it never has been. This isn’t gentle–but it also can’t be. You can’t afford to take your time coaxing each and every individual 500-lb pissed off calf into please climbing onto that trailer. It’s scary to them and it’s scary to us. One kick in the head and it’s over, and that happens. A lot.

The best thing to do is get them through it as quickly and as painlessly as possible. After all, a cow doesn’t know what, “Son of a bitch!” really means. It’s just another human cry to them. Within the hour, they step off the trailer and down the shadowy chute, trailers swishing, onto other pastures. Literally.